Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Aontú put in freedom of information, FOI, requests to each of the local authorities and found there were 4,000 empty local authority homes in the country. If those 4,000 empty local authority homes were brought back into use, they would be enough to house the total 15,600 people who are currently homeless. We found that it is taking on average eight months to get those local authority homes back into use, while it takes less than two months to get private rental accommodation back into use.

This is the key. While the Minister of State set out the criteria that have to be gone through to get those back into use, the State is incredibly cumbersome, slow and bureaucratic about getting them back into use. All I am saying is that we need to match urgency within the Department to the level of crisis that exists in the real world for very many people. We need the State to go through the system, make sure it is done properly and carefully and protect taxpayers' money, but I want the Minister of State to inject significant urgency into the process. For people who are currently living in hotel accommodation or emergency hubs, life is urgent. They need to get out of those hubs and into a home, have their own front door, have the protection of their own home and be able to get on with their lives.

See this speech in context